Search form

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a day-long listening session in Chicago Friday about proposed carbon regulations for existing power plants, groups on various sides of the issue spoke out at rallies held downtown. Progress Illinois provides a snapshot of the events.

While
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a day-long
listening session in Chicago Friday about proposed carbon regulations
for existing power plants, groups on various sides of the issue spoke
out at rallies held downtown.

Environmentalists and public health
advocates from across the Midwest staged a rally at Federal Plaza Friday afternoon, calling on
the EPA to enact the strongest possible limits on carbon pollution from
existing coal- and gas-fired power plants. Earlier this morning, state
business leaders and labor groups also met at the plaza, saying any new
carbon pollution regulations for already-operating power plants would
put thousands of Illinois coal-related jobs at risk and lead to higher electricity bills.

The EPA is holding 11 public listening sessions
across the country, with Friday's meeting taking place at the EPA's
Chicago regional office, to hear from the public on the issue. The EPA's
rules are a component of President Barack Obama's climate action plan
released in June. The EPA is expected to release its proposal on the matter in
June 2014, which would be followed by another public comment period.

A
few hundred people turned out for the afternoon rally, where activists
carried signs reading, "EPA: protect us from killer pollution" and "Big
coal and big oil make us sick."

Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign, stressed that power plants are the number one source of carbon pollution "that's pushing our planet to the brink."

Illinois was recently ranked the seventh dirtiest state when it comes to carbon pollution from its power plants, a new report from the Environment Illinois Research and Education Center found.

The environmental activists stressed that the country needs to ditch coal and make a faster shift towards renewable energy.

"There
are some in our country, and there are some folks here today, who are
very worried about the changes that may come as we move towards clean
energy in the country, but we also know that moving towards clean energy
in this country is going to help avert a lot of the costs of climate
change and it's going to create huge new economic opportunity all around
this country," Hitt said.

Here's more from Hitt and the rally:

>

Katie
Mimnaugh, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who
has asthma, said every person should have the right to breathe clean,
fresh air.

"Instead of relying on coal, which is being brought
down by market forces anyways, why don't we invest in cleaner
alternatives," she asked. "Introducing strong carbon pollution standards gives us an
opportunity to modernize our communities and create more clean energy
jobs. It's a win-win for our future here in Illinois."

Mimnaugh
went on to say that today's youth have to "grow old on this planet."

"We'll
be damned if we sit back and let other people ruin it for us," she added.

Failing to enact the strictest limits on carbon pollution from current power plants would continue to allow companies to "make money at the expense of our health and our community," stressed Cheryl Johnson with the People for Community Recovery, a group that educates communities about environmental justice.

"It's not just about polar bears," Johnson told the large crowd. "It's about us as human beings ... I want to tell [the] EPA, because ultimately it's not just about us, it's about them too, because pollution [does] not discriminate and it definitely [doesn't] go to heaven."

Also attending the afternoon rally was State Sen. Michael Frerichs (D-Champaign), who said he "stands with every citizen in Illinois who wants to breathe clean air and who cares about the future of their children."

Frerichs, who is running for state treasurer, also touted some of Illinois' climate-action achievements as part of the state's renewable portfolio standard. But he also acknowledged that much more work needs to be done. Here's more from Frerichs:

Meanwhile, the nearly 60 labor and business group members gathered Friday morning, arguing that the new pollution regulations mean increased electricity costs across the board. Businesses may have to pass those higher costs on to customers or be forced to layoff employees, according to the business groups. Tens of
thousands of Illinois energy-related jobs, including coal mining, could be in jeopardy, according to the labor leaders in attendance.

“Coal
provides over 40 percent of this nation’s energy, but if EPA is
unchecked they're going to put out some regulations that would put coal
out of business and coal burning power plants out of business,” said
Phil Gonet, president of the Illinois Coal Association. “It’s going to
put electricity prices out of business.”

The group also
complained about the EPA's listening session meeting location, arguing that holding it in Chicago may provide a biased hearing due to the strong anti-coal movement in the city. Additionally, the location makes it
difficult for coal-industry workers to attend.

“Our
coal lies about 200 to 400 miles south, and we think EPA should be
listening to us down there, but we’ve come up here,” Gonet said.

Robert Schwartz, president of Boilermakers Local 1 in Chicago, represents workers who help build and repair coal-fired boilers that generate electricity. Thousands of boilermakers could be impacted by the new EPA regulations, he said.

“These additional mandates are destroying what manufacturing we have left by increasing the cost of power," Schwartz stressed. "With a loss of jobs, we will be more dependent on foreign nations. We cannot depend on wind and solar energy when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind does not blow. They don’t generate electricity, we will be left in the dark."

Here’s more from Gonet as well as Jeff Mays, president of the Illinois Business Roundtable:

Also on Friday, a bipartisan group of 19 state representatives and five state senators
sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, saying “coal is vital to Illinois.”

“The state’s coal industry employs
tens of thousands of workers and Illinois is one of the top coal
producers in the country,” the letter reads. “New regulatory standards
could result in significantly higher electricity bills for all
residential customers and increased costs for small and large
businesses. During a time when the Illinois economy is particularly
precarious and with unemployment ranking the second highest in the
nation, the new guidelines could also mean the end of good-paying jobs
across the state.”